Lecture 4 (Determining Feasibility and Managing Analysis and Design Activities)

Lecture 4
Determining Feasibility and

Managing Analysis and Design
Activities in a Project
Abdisalam Issa-Salwe
Department of Computer Science

Faculty of Information Science and Technology
East Africa University
Content
 Project initiation
 Determining project feasibility
 Project scheduling
 Managing project activities
 Manage systems analysis team members
East Africa University, Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Department of Computer Science
1
Project Initiation
 Projects are initiated for two broad reasons:
 Problems that lend themselves to systems
solutions
 Opportunities for improvement through
 Upgrading systems
 Altering systems
 Installing new systems
Organizational Problems
 Identify problems by checking output against
performance criteria
 Too many errors
 Work completed slowly
 Work done incorrectly
 Work done incompletely
 Work not done at all
2
What is a Project?
 Various definitions of a project
 A temporary effort undertaken to create a
unique product or service.
 Planned activity.
 ‘A project is a set of co-ordinated activities that
contribute to the achievement of a common
goal or goals.’
5
Project life cycle

 The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical
sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s
goals or objectives.
 The major time periods through which any
project passes
 Each period may be identified as a phase and
further broken down into stages
 Generic naming of phases, i.e. real situation
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3
Implementation
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East Africa University, Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Department of
Computer Science
Project life cycle
 Defining Phase
 Initiation, Formation, Objective setting
 Planning Phase
 Task planning, Feasibility, Fact-finding,
 Position analysis, Option generation, Option
evaluation
 Implementing
 Design & Development, Implementation
 Control & Completing
 Review, Completion
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4
Defining Phase
Concerned with deciding whether a project should

begin and committing to do so
 Initiation stage
 Describes the beginning of a project
 Ensures that the project is established with clear reference
terms
 Project Initiation Document (PID) drawn, which sets term of
reference
 Objectives and scope of the project
 Formation stage
 Selection of personnel, i.e. project manager, project board,
the project team, etc.
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Defining Phase (cont…)

 Objective setting
 Project goals for a quantifiable targets
 Contract
 Production specification
 Customer’s specification
 SMART
 Specific
 Measurable
 Agreed upon
 Realistic
 Time-bound
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5
Planning Phase
Aims to devise a workable scheme to accomplish the
overall project goal
 Planning stage
 The project to be broken into manageable task
 Task lists. Task should be:
Clear

 Self-contained
 Feasibility and fact finding and fact finding stage

 Defining in Network diagram
 Realistic judgement
11 East Africa University, Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Department of Computer Science
Planning Phase (cont…)

 The purpose of the Project Planning Phase is:
 Establish Requirements
 Establish Cost, Schedule, List of Deliverables
and Delivery Dates.
 Establish Resource Plan.
 Get Management Approval and proceed to next
phases.
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Project Management Activities
 Planning
 Purpose of planning is to facilitate later
accomplishment
 Planning is an iterative process, from less
detailed plans more complex plans are
developed
 With large projects detailed planning of the later
stages would take place as they approached
Planning Phase (cont…)

 The basic processes of the Project Planning Phase:
 Scope Planning: Specifies the in-scope requirements for the
project.
 Preparing the Work Breakdown Structure: Specifies the
breakdown of the project into tasks and sub-tasks.
 Organisational Breakdown Structure: Specifies who all in the
organisation need to be involved and referred for Project
Completion.
 Resource Planning: Specifies who will do what work at which
time of the project.
 Project Schedule Development: Specifies the entire schedule
of the activities detailing their sequence of execution.
 Budget Planning: Specifies the budgeted cost be incurred in
the completion of the Project
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7
Feasibility Study
 A feasibility study:
 A systematic analysis performed in advance
of a project in order to provide information
about whether or not the project should be
undertaken.
 Conducted correctly, it should address
issues that could influence the success of a
potential project and assess the merits of
different options for comparison.
Feasibility Study (cont…)

 Questions of feasibility study should look at:
 Is the project technically viable?
 What of volumes? Response times?
 Does the system represent a good investment?
 What is the justification of this project compared to
others competing for resources?
 Are all the costs and benefits recognised?
 How do you assign value to benefits?
 Will the solution work within the organisation? What is
the change impact?
 What are the external influences that may impact the
project?
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8
Feasibility Study (cont…)
 Technical:
 Is the project feasibility within the limits of current
technology? Does the technology exist at all? Is it
available within given resource constraints (i.e., budget,
schedule,...)?
 Operational:
 Define the urgency of the problem and the acceptability of
any solution; includes people oriented and social issues:
internal issues, such as manpower problems,
 Labour objections, manager resistance, organisational
conflicts and policies; also external issues, including legal
aspects and government regulations, also social
acceptability of the new system.
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Feasibility studies (cont…)

 Economic (Cost/Benefits Analysis)
 Is the project possible, given resource
constraints? Are the benefits that will accrue
from the new system worth the costs? What are
the savings that will result from the system,
including tangible and intangible ones? What
are the development and operational costs?
 Schedule
 Constraints on the project schedule and
whether they could be reasonably met
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9
Project Management Activities (cont…)
 Project management is
 The systematic planning, organising and
controlling of allocated resources to accomplish
project cost, time and performance objectives.
 It is about managing projects
 It is a dynamic process
 It is based upon accepted principles of
management
 It is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and
techniques in order to meet the needs and
expectations from a project

 The objective of project management is a successful
project.
 A project will be deemed successful if it is completed
 Specified level of quality
 On time (timescale)
 Within budget.
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10
 Major Reasons for Project Failure
 Technical Failure
 Project Management Failure
 Failure in the business environment to meet
expectations and needs
 It is not projects that fail, but the people
involved with projects!
Project Characteristics
 Key characteristics of projects
 Non-routine tasks are involved
 Planning is required
 Specific objects are to be met
 or
 A specified product is to be created

 The project has a predetermined time span
(this may be absolute or relative)
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East Africa University, Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Department of Computer
Science
11
Potential problem areas
 All projects will have potential problem areas
 An understanding of
 what the potential problems areas are
 when the potential problems are liable to occur
 why the potential problems could happen
 how the potential problems can be averted
Controlling the project

 A project that is not controlled will soon become
out of control
 The means of control
 Objectives - sets out what has to be achieved
 Metrics - measures what has been achieved
 Sub-goals and key result areas - provides
milestone on the way to achieving the
objectives
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East Africa University, Faculty of Information Science and Technology, Department of Computer
Science
12
Information and control
 Strategic
 high level
 generally the role of senior management
 about setting objectives
 Tactical
 ensures objectives are fulfilled
 a middle management role
 Operational
 the day-to-day work of getting the job done
 generally a junior management role
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Project manager
 Project manger: The individual responsible

for managing a project.
 Project management process: The way in
which a project manger co-ordinates a
project from initiation to completion, using
project management and general
management techniques, is
13
Project manager duties
 Outline planning
 Detailed planning:
 Teambuilding
 Communication
 Coordinating project activities
 Monitoring and control
 Problem solution
 Quality control
Project manager duties (cont…)

 Outline planning
 Develop project targets
 Diving the project into activities and placing
these activities into the right sequence
 Development framework for the procedures
and structures
 Detailed planning:
 work breakdown structure, resource,
requirements
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 Teambuilding:
 build cohesion and team spirit
 Communication:
 Supervisor must know what is going on
 Ensure members are briefed
 Coordinating project activities:
 Between the project team and users, and other
external parties
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 Monitoring and control:
 The project manager should estimate the
causes for each departure from the standard,
and take corrective measures
 Problem-solution
 Even with the best planning, unforeseen
problems may arise
 Quality control:
 There is often a short-sighted trade-off between
getting the project out on time and the project
quality.
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15
Project manager skills
 Leadership and team building
 Organisational
 Communication
 Technical
 Personal
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Project manager skills (cont…)

 Leadership and team building
 Being enthusiastic about the project
 Being positive
 Delegating tasks
 Organisational:
 Ensuring all project documentation is clear and
distributed to all who require it
 Using project management tools to analyse and
monitor project progress
16
 Communication:
 Listing to project team members
 Using persuasion to coerce reluctant team
members or stakeholders to support the project
 Ensuring management is kept informed
 Technical:
 Providing the technical expertise and
experience needed to manage the project.
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 Personal
 Being flexible
 Showing persistence
 Being creative
 Being patience
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17
Project team
 Comprises the people who report directly or
indirectly to the project manager
 Project’s success depend to a large extent on
the team members select
 The team comprises individuals with different
skills and personalities
 Question when building a team:
 What skills required
 Who has the particular talent
 Availability and affordability
 What level of supervision
Factors which enhances project team

 Effective communication
 All member being aware of the team’s purpose
 Collaboration and creativity
 Trusting, supportive atmosphere
 Innovative/creative behaviour
 Interdependence among the team
 Capacity of conflict resolution
 Enthusiasm
 Acceptance of change
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Project stakeholders
 Identifying Stakeholders - a Primary and an Ongoing
Task
 "Satisfy stakeholders!" is the project manager's mantra.
 For successful projects, it's not enough to deliver on the
customer's demand;
 Projects have to meet all stakeholder expectations.
 Identifying stakeholders is a primary task because all the
important decisions during the initiation, planning and
execution stages of the project are made by these
stakeholders.
37
Project stakeholders (cont…)

 Some primary project stakeholders:
 the project manager
 the risk manager
 the project team
 the support team
 the sponsor
 the customer
 In a larger sense, anyone who participates in the project
or is impacted by its results is a stakeholder.
 Each stakeholder has an essential contribution to make
and all stakeholder expectations need to be met.
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Support team
Team Members
Customers
Project manager
Sponsors
Risk manager
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Reference
 BPP, Information Systems, Study Text, Paper 2.1,
BPP Professional Education, United Kingdom.
 Lachlan M. MacKinnon, Information: Types of
Information System Systems,
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~lachlan/dbislectures/le
ctures/types.ppt,
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Group discussion
 Group 1:
 What is a project?
 What is the difference between a project and a
project management?
 Group 2:
 What is feasibility of study? Give some examples
 Group 3:
 Name three of the project manager’s responsibilities.
 Name three of the project manager’s skills
 Group 4:
 What are the factors which can enhance project
team?
 What is the purpose of the planning phase?.
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Lecture 4 (Determining Feasibility and Managing Analysis and Design Activities)

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Lecture 4

Determining Feasibility and

Department of Computer Science

 Installing new systems

Project life cycle

Project life cycle

Concerned with deciding whether a project should

Defining Phase (cont…)

 Feasibility and fact finding and fact finding stage

Planning Phase (cont…)

Planning Phase (cont…)

Feasibility Study (cont…)

Feasibility studies (cont…)

Project Management Activities (cont…)

 A specified product is to be created

Controlling the project

 Project manger: The individual responsible

Project manager duties (cont…)

Project manager duties (cont…)

Project manager skills (cont…)

Project manager skills (cont…)

 Who has the particular talent

 Availability and affordability

 What level of supervision

Factors which enhances project team

Project stakeholders (cont…)

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